


Good Wine

by kikibug13



Category: Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Buffy, Shaun, and Georgia visit Maggie. Buffy offers to update her tech, George has research to do, and Shaun goes off looking for dead things to poke with sticks. What can <i>possibly</i> go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Wine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [becstatic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/becstatic/gifts).



> Many thanks to my betas, [Anna](http://archiveofourown.org/users/adsartha) and Mat, and I hope you don't mind that this ended up somewhat more upbeat than many of the stories which can be told in this series!
> 
> Merry holidays!

"You sure this is all right?"

Maggie rolled her eyes - Buffy must have asked that a dozen times at least even _before_ the van and bike had passed through security, let alone since - and nodded. "Yes, it's fine. I've got the run of the place, knock yourself out." Small pause, which the blonde filled up with imagining all the _things_ she could do to this place, and the hostess spoke again. "You want to make sure you can get the live feed from the wahoo, though, there might be something we don't wanna miss, if he follows his usual MO."

Buffy blinked at her... friend, noting the mischievous glint in Maggie's eyes, and her look focused with a suspicion. "You didn't mess up with his supplies, did you?"

"Mess up? No, I just added to them. It'll be all right, he goes around overprepared even for the crazy things he pulls off. ... you can make sure Georgia doesn't get the footage until you've had a chance to got through it and polish it up?"

"I'm not keeping her from checking on Shaun when he's out in the field. But," she had to admit, "she's much more likely to do it over the phone than check the feeds." With that in mind, she surveyed the tech setup of the house again, then pointed. "That one. It seems decent enough for secondary work, and we can leave it on to give us the feed while I pull the rest apart and put them back together." She flashed a smile at Maggie. "Wanna watch?

The hostess returned a slower smile that gave Buffy ideas which had nothing to do with tinkering with cables and gadgets. "Don't mind if I do, actually. Wanna give me the guided tour? What with me being the one who'll be using them..."

"Mm-hmm."

Not that the conversation stayed anywhere in the vicinity of electronics. Buffy was entirely too used to the work and being the best at it to be any good at explaining it - and they had much more interesting things to discuss. Pre-Rising movies and series were clearly a safe bet, and once they got to their own writing, comparing notes on ongoing series and complimenting each other's one-offs, and bouncing ideas off each other about poetry--

They were, an hour and a half or so later, each holding a glass of wine and laughing, sitting distinctly closer than either of them would have considered the day before. Buffy was trying to formulate the next brilliant point in the short story for next week when she saw Maggie's eyes widen. The hostess pointed to the monitor they had left on. "Look! I think it will be now..."

"Hmm?" Buffy leaned back - and into Maggie - to get a better view of the screen.

Shaun, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, had found himself half surrounded by a flock of shamblers. Even though she _knew_ he got into those sort of situations on a semi-regular basis (it was rare if a week passed without _some_ sort of ruckus, but then, he had to keep his ratings up, too), Buffy still felt her throat clench. There were a _lot_ of zombies out there.

"Do-- do such big crowds get close?"

"Not here, no. He must have driven all this time to find them, actually."

"That's Shaun all right."

"I know."

Then their boss - and friend - turned turned the point of view camera away from the zombies to look down at his hand at the top of the bag he was carrying across his shoulders, giving his viewers a thumb-up before digging inside. "He's got a grenade in there, hasn't he."

"When doesn't he?"

Buffy snorted, her attention back to the screen, free hand lacing fingers with Maggie's lightly as Shaun's full fist came out of the bag and he started raising it to his mouth to pull the grenade's pin--

\-- when the cap, which probably hadn't been well screwed-on, flew off a jar of-- "is that _Marshmallow Fluff_?!"

"Yup!"

Shaun's whole front - and part of the dirt bike - were now covered in the white sticky stuff, and Buffy could imagine his swearing so vividly she could almost _hear_ it.

Despite the still-approaching zombies, she threw her head back, between the back of the couch and Maggie's shoulder, and _laughed_. Not long enough to miss that Shaun had a spare grenade, and his second attempt to blow shamblers up resulted more or less the way he intended. With some skill and daring, he slipped the bike through the clearing the explosion had caused, and he was speeding on his way back to a clearer place for all the necessary testing before he returned to base.

Buffy and Maggie were still giggling in anticipation of his reaction - when the bike finally made it through the last round of security and pulled off in front of them. Predictably, Georgia made her way out of the back room where she'd been researching for her current story during all this time to meet him, too. The expression on her face suggested that her eyes would look like poached eggs, with the retinal KA addition, if they could see them behind the sunglasses. She frowned.

"Shaun?"

The low-key stream of threats and profanities hiccuped to a pause as he almost stood at attention at that voice. Buffy's reaction was identical. "Yeah?"

"Why is there white..." she leaned closer, "... sticky, sweet-smelling stuff on my bike?"

"Because _some_ body," he glared over her back at the two girls, which resulted in their exploding in a fresh bout of giggles, "messed with my stuff!"

"Well, clean it."

"... yes, George." There wasn't even a trace of resentment in the response. Some days, Shaun could get his sister to do the absolutely insane. Others, he would obey her slightest hint of a whim. She'd never get them.

This thought distracted Buffy. Georgia had turned around to face them again, a frown wrinkling her forehead.

"Buffy? Are you drunk?"

Since she had nothing else at hand, she admitted the truth. "Yup. A little." And so that it didn't sound _entirely_ defensive, she bubbled, "want some? Maggie's got _good_ wine >"

The brief silence was much less intimidating with Maggie this close, for some reason. "Sure?"

Buffy wasn't quite giggling again by the time they reached the living room, but not even Georgia's intimidating presence could spoil the effect of that outraged face with wind-blown marshmallow cream sculptures on the cheeks and hair.


End file.
